


No One Messes with Mikey

by Yukio



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Brotherly Love, Gen, Kid Fic, Kids Are Home Alone, Taking Care of Michelangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 04:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15428976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yukio/pseuds/Yukio
Summary: Having three great older brothers who always have your back is a great thing. But what if they are a little overprotective? And why do they think they need to be there every time their little brother is in the slightest danger?The story was published in the Orange Crush TMNT Fanbook.





	No One Messes with Mikey

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank my amazing beta readers Cheri for helping me with the idea and keeping an eye on the logic and progress of the story, sharing her opinions and putting up with my constant rambling about the story, and Ravenshell for checking the grammar and also keeping an eye on the logic. Thank you, girls! <3

“Did you see how I kicked that Foot moron’s butt? He thought he could come at me with that toothpick of his,” Raph bragged as he walked the sewers with his brothers and Casey. They were on their way to the lair.

“Yeah, that was pretty awesome,” Casey laughed. “Knocking out the lights of some of those punks is never a bad thing.”

“Hell yes! I’d have loved to have more fun, but someone here had to use his drone to show off.” Raph turned to his purple-masked brother.

Donnie shrugged and grinned. “You know me. I never miss a chance to use some toys in combat. I saved your ass, by the way.”

“More like Mikey’s.” Raph laughed and slapped his youngest brother’s shell. Mikey glanced at him and he didn’t look as amused as Raph; a frown creased his forehead, his eyes sparkled dangerously. However, Raph didn’t notice any of that. 

“Good job, everyone,” Leo said with a smile. “I’m proud of you, guys.”

Mikey snorted. “Yeah, perfect job…” he growled. 

His brothers and their human friend turned to him with puzzled expressions.

“What was that, Mikey?” Leo asked.

“Nothing,” the ninja with the orange mask snapped.

“Come on, Mikey, tell us.”

“He’s just jealous he didn’t kick as many asses as we did,” Raph smirked.

“And whose fault is that!?” Mikey barked at his red-masked brother.

Raph blinked. “Okay, dude, chill. I wasn’t trying to offend you. Each of us had their share in the fight. Some of us more, some of us less…”

Mikey looked at the other ninja with so much fury that Raph shut up immediately. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen his little brother so angry. Mikey was always an annoying ray of sunshine.

“Mikey, what’s wrong?” Leo asked gently, ready to solve the problem immediately.

Mikey directed his anger at their leader for change. “What’s wrong? I don’t know, Leo. Maybe nothing’s wrong. Maybe I’m just making fuss, because you three think I’m some kind of a damsel in distress that needs protection all the time. Newsflash! I can handle myself! If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been trained by the same ninjutsu master as you!”

“Mikey, no one said you couldn’t handle yourself. You’re a skillful ninja, we all know that,” Donnie tried to calm their little brother down. They never doubted him. They were just… a little… protective of him.

“Do you?” Mikey challenged as he turned abruptly to the purple-masked genius. “Sorry, bro, I haven’t noticed. I wanted to kick some ass myself, but whenever things turned interesting, one of you jumped in and spoiled all the fun! I’m not a helpless princess that needs to be rescued every damn time things get a little messy.”

Leo, Donnie and Raph exchanged confused glances.

“We’re sorry, Mikey, we didn’t realize we did that,” Leo said after a moment of awkwardness.

Mikey snorted. “Next time, please do,” he said. They were already near the entrance into the lair, so Mikey stalked in, still fuming.

“He overreacted,” Raph said with a frown.

“I don’t know, man,” Casey said. “I think Mikey was right. Whenever you three thought the Foot ninjas got too close to him, you always jumped in and fended them off.”

Raph glared. “What’s wrong about watching his back?”

“There’s nothing wrong about it as long as you are truly saving his shell and not trying to be a moron and ruin his fun,” Casey tried to reason with his turtle friend, then he looked at his brothers. “Don’t take me wrong, but there are times when you guys act as though you doubted Mikey’s skills.”

Leo sighed. “You’re right, Casey. We really do act like that…”

While talking, they entered the lair where April ran to them.

“What happened, guys? Mikey came in and he looked quite angry.”

“We happened to be kind of overprotective of him during the fight with Foot soldiers and he didn’t appreciate it,” Donnie tried to explain, and a guilty expression settled on his face. Raph only folded his arms on his chest and kept glaring while Leo motioned to the couch.

“Let’s sit. There’s more to it than just that,” he invited their two friends to hear a story about children’s joys and worries and how they had influenced their lives.

“It happened years ago,” he started. “We were just little kids. Father barely left us home alone and when he did, he made sure he was back before anything could find us and hurt us.”

“You can say he was paranoid, but we were stupid and vulnerable. We’d just started learning ninjutsu and we thought we owned the world,” Raph said.

“When I invented our phones, it gave him the freedom to leave us alone for longer time periods while he was looking for food and stuff we could use, but he kept checking on us as often as he could. Sometimes every ten minutes,” Donnie added his part.

Leo smiled. “They were good times. But as Raph pointed out, we were naïve. We thought we were the cleverest creatures underground…”

“Donnie thought that,” Raph said with a grin.

“And you thought you were invincible,” Donnie returned the jibe, sniggering.

Leo chuckled before he turned his attention to April and Casey. “I was supposed to be the responsible one. But it’s hard to be responsible when responsibility threatens to ruin your fun.”

Raph smirked. “Especially when responsibility is not one of your virtues.”

~*~

No matter if human or mutant, kids were always the same – willing to give anything for a little time without the supervision of their parents. The four little mutant turtle brothers weren’t any different.

One day, Master Splinter told his sons he needed to leave. He tried to explain to them that it was something concerning their safety, but he didn’t go into details. It would have been a futile effort, anyway, since the boys stopped listening to him the moment he mentioned he’d be gone for two days. All they were able to think about was how much fun they were going to have. There was going to be no scolding for running around or yelling, no waking up early the next morning and no practice. They could do whatever the shell they wanted. The only thing they needed to do before their father came back home the next day was cleaning the lair. He didn’t forget to tell them to call him if any problem occurred.

After Splinter had left, the boys decided to clean the lair as fast as possible so that they could spend the rest of the time hanging around and enjoying their freedom.

They barely had half of the work done when Mikey came to the red-masked brother, giving him his best puppy eyes while hugging his old teddy bear tightly to his chest.

“Raphie, my tummy aches,” he whimpered.

Knowing his little brother, Raph thought Mikey was looking for excuses to skip his chores. The red-masked turtle wanted to be done with his share of work as soon as possible and he definitely wasn’t going to do Mikey’s. Or anyone else’s.

“The shell it does,” he hissed irritably. “You just want me to get your work done. Forget it. I’m not falling for that, you lazy ass.” He wrenched the teddy bear out of Mikey’s hands and threw it into a box where he had collected all the books, video tapes, comics and toys he had found in the living room. “Here.” He put the box, which was quite heavy, in his little brother’s hands. “Take it to my room and put it under my bed. And if you try to trick any of us again, I won’t go so easy on you anymore,” he growled, ignoring the tears that started gathering in the corners of Mikey’s eyes. “Do you understand?”

The younger turtle nodded obediently and carried the box into Raph’s room.

Raph didn’t pay attention to his orange-masked brother anymore, so he didn’t know if Mikey finished his share of work or he just pretended he was doing something when he wasn’t doing anything. It wouldn’t have been the first time he ignored his duties.

At last, the boys managed to clean the lair. It was time to have some fun.

~*~

“So you threatened him,” Casey said to Raph, not surprised.

“Just a little. It was nothing Mikey couldn’t handle.” The red-masked ninja waved his hand indifferently. “You gotta understand. Mikey always liked using dirty tricks on us so that he could read a comic book somewhere hidden or play a video game.”

“But Mikey truly didn’t feel well,” Donnie said. “When the lair was clean and we finally had free time, he came to me.”

~*~

“Donnie, my tummy aches pretty badly,” the youngest turtle complained to his genius brother, who was fiddling with a heater. Every time Master Splinter wanted to turn it on, the thing gave an ominous sound and it took way too long until it started working. Donnie had wanted to fix it long ago, but Father had forbidden it to him. He still was a kid that needed to learn a lot and despite his enthusiasm and efforts he wasn’t always successful. Master Splinter simply didn’t want to risk the only heater in the lair ending up totally broken. Now, with their father gone, there was no one to stop Donnie from proving his skills and fixing the thing.

So when Mikey came to him with tears rolling down his chubby cheeks, Donnie knew that this was exactly the type of situation Father wanted them to call about if it occurred. That meant the end of Donnie’s efforts. He couldn’t let that happen.

“I know what will help you,” he said. An aching stomach was nothing serious and Donnie was certain that activated charcoal would do the trick. Master Splinter used to give it to them when they had problems with digestion. “Wait here, I’ll be right back,” he said and went to look for the first aid kit.

When he returned, he found Mikey curled up on the concrete ground, hugging his knees.

“Here you are.” He handed him two pills of the charcoal.  

Mikey looked up, showing Donnie his teary face. He took the pills from Donnie’s hand.

“Are you sure it will help?” he asked and sniffled.

“Absolutely!” Donnie said, convinced. “Take it and have some rest and you’ll feel as good as new,” he added with a grin and patted Mikey’s shoulder.

~*~

“I didn’t know if Mikey followed my advice. All I cared about was the heater and how much I wanted to prove myself to Master Splinter. Also, I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble if he got home and the heater was still in pieces,” Donnie said and sighed. He wasn’t proud of himself, but they were kids and they wanted to use their happy free time the best they could. Taking care of a sick sibling wasn’t exactly their idea of having fun.

“He followed it,” Leo told him. “I had just finished my training and wanted to watch some TV when I found him lying on the couch and fiddling with his phone.”

~*~

“What are you doing!?” Leo cried in horror. He ran to his little brother and wrenched the phone out of his hands.

The little figure on the couch winced and curled up in a fetal position. “I wanted to call Dad,” Mikey sobbed. “My tummy aches a lot, Leo.” He hugged his belly, wet eyes fixed on his big brother in the last hope.

Leo watched him, worriedly. “Mikey, are you sick?” he asked gently and rubbed the younger turtle’s arm in a soothing manner.

“Yes, but Raph doesn’t believe me and Donnie gave me charcoal and said it would help. It didn’t,” Mikey complained and new tears appeared in his eyes. “Leo, I want Dad home.”

Leo hated tears. When he saw them, he always felt backed into a corner. He didn’t want their fun to end so soon, not like this. They were big boys and should be able to deal with such a little problem. Anyway, he was the big brother; he was responsible for his younger siblings. This was his chance to show their father that he wasn’t a little kid anymore, that he knew how to take care of his family.

“Mikey, you don’t need Father when you have me. I’ll take care of you,” he promised. “Come on. What you need is bed rest,” he said, congratulating himself on how clever he was.

He helped Mikey up on his feet and led him to the little brother’s room. He tucked him into bed.

“You’ll be okay. I know what helps with a stomachache. You should eat only crackers and drink water. Now rest and I’ll bring you some.”

“Okay,” Mikey said. There was complete trust in his big brother written in his eyes.

Leo gave Mikey an encouraging smile and left the room. He ran to the kitchen to get the crackers and water. He believed that diet was a universal remedy for any kind of abdominal pains.

He returned with a tray loaded with crackers, a glass of water and a triumphant grin on his lips.

“Here. Eat this and you’ll feel better,” he said gently, but before he set the tray in Mikey’s lap, he helped him to sit up.

Mikey took the first cracker hesitantly. He looked at it mistrustfully, but Leo’s smile encouraged him to give it a try. He started chomping on it slowly.

“Water?” Leo offered him the glass, and Mikey sipped from it.

“I don’t feel better,” the little brother said after a moment, and a big tear rolled down his cheek.

“It doesn’t help immediately. You need to rest a lot and wait. The bad things need to get out of your body,” Leo explained. “If you want, I’ll wait with you. I can read you a comic, what do you say?”

Mikey shrugged, eating the cracker in tiny bites.

Leo didn’t need an answer. He had come up with a perfect plan and he was determined to put it in practice. He studied the shelf with Mikey’s comic books for a little while before he chose one and came up to the bed.

“Justice Force?” he asked as he sat down. Again, Mikey’s only response was a shrug. He handed Leo the rest of the crackers and sipped from the water one more time.

“The crackers are disgusting,” he announced, drinking a bit more. Then he handed Leo the glass and lay down, pulling his knees to his belly.

“They may be disgusting, but they’ll help. You’ll see,” Leo said, convinced, and settled comfortably next to his brother. He opened the comic and started reading while showing Mikey the pictures. The lack of response from his little brother’s side didn’t concern him.

~*~

“I was so engrossed in the story that it took me some time to notice Mikey had fallen asleep,” Leo said with a gentle smile as he remembered the time. “I took the tray with the rest of the crackers and the glass with the half-drunk water to the kitchen.  I didn’t return to Mikey’s room after that. There was no one in front of the TV, so I sniffed my chance. I grabbed the remote, ready to give it to no one and watch whatever I wanted to.”

Raph smirked. “How long did it take until I came?”

“Two minutes,” Leo said, chuckling.

“I anticipate a fight,” Casey laughed.

“You bet,” Donnie affirmed with a broad grin. “When I finished fixing the heater – which I managed to fix without any problem by the way – I decided to do some repairs on the TV. There was a little problem with the screen and I thought I knew what to do with it.”

“You didn’t join the fight, did you?” April asked, and Leo and Raph burst into laughter.

Donnie grinned. “Depends. I wanted to turn off the TV so that I could dismantle it. Needless to say, the wrath of those two turned against me.”

~*~

“What the shell are you doing, Donnie!?” Raph roared from under their big brother, who had managed to get the hothead on his carapace and was holding him down.

Raph’s outraged cry shifted Leo’s attention from his red-masked brother to the genius. “Donnie!” He immediately let go of Raph and jumped at the little engineer. “You can’t! Don’t hurt the TV!”

“I want to fix it!” Donnie defended himself. “I fixed the heater, I can fix the TV!”

“You moron, you broke the heater? Splinter’s so gonna punish you!” Raph growled, climbing on his feet and hurrying to help Leo in stopping their purple-masked brother in his intended unforgivable action.

“I didn’t break anything!” Donnie yelled.

“That’s what you say!” Raph barked at him.

“Guys,” a weak voice piped, but no one seemed to hear it.

“Why do you need to do it right now?” Leo asked Donnie angrily.

“Leo.” The weak voice tried to catch his attention, but was ignored again.

“Because it needs fixing!” Donnie shouted in his blue-masked brother’s face.

“You need fixing with my fists!” Raph threatened.

“Donnie. Raphie,” that voice sounded once more; this time it was a bit stronger and accompanied by a loud sob.

Finally hearing it, the three turtle brothers turned around, spotting Mikey standing there, crying, his arms wrapped around his middle.

“It still hurts,” he said through his tears. “You said the crackers and water would help, but it didn’t. I want Dad.” He sobbed again, looking at the trio accusingly.

“I also said you should rest,” Leo admonished, but his voice lacked certainty.

“I want Dad,” Mikey repeated, and his small body trembled. “It hurts so much.”

Leo, Donnie and Raph exchanged panicky looks.

“I… think we should call Master Splinter,” Leo said tentatively, glancing at the purple- and red-masked brothers as if looking for confirmation.

“Please, call Dad,” Mikey wailed. As he started to take a step towards the couch, he lost his balance and fell on his knees before any of his brothers could react. He cried even more and curled up in a ball.

His brothers were by his side immediately, wanting to pick him up, but Mikey fought back.

“Noooo! It hurts! It hurts!”

“Leo, do something!” Donnie turned to the eldest turtle with desperation in his eyes. Raph only stood there, not knowing how to help his little brother. He looked at Leo with hope and pleading.

“I’m calling Father,” Leo announced and ran off to look for his phone.

~*~

“It took Master Splinter agonizingly long to come home,” Leo sighed.

“’Agonizingly’ is a key word,” Raph remarked. “It’s hard to say who was in more agony – Mikey or us, who had to deal with him until then.”

“Poor little thing,” April said sympathetically, hugging a small pillow she had grabbed from the couch to her chest. A slightly jealous glance Casey threw at the lucky cushion didn’t escape Raph’s attention. He grinned at his best friend and made a kissy face while Donnie continued on in the story.

“Yeah, he cried a river,” the purple-masked ninja affirmed. “We had no idea what to do except getting Mikey to bed, keeping an eye on him until Father arrived and being ready to grant his every wish.”

“We huddled around him and repeated that Master Splinter was on his way,” Leo said just when a loud slap sounded.

“Ouch!” Raph whimpered, and when everyone looked at him, he grinned apologetically, rubbing his arm. “Sorry.”

April shook her head at her boyfriend and the red-masked turtle’s antics, but her attention turned to Leo and Donnie almost immediately.

“What happened when Master Splinter came? Was he angry with you that you hadn’t called sooner?”

“You have no idea!” Raph laughed. “He said we needed more discipline. The training that followed taught us to never neglect important things ever again. While the lazy ass was recuperating, we were dying during Father’s lessons.”

“Lessons in what?”

“Everything. Ninjutsu, concentration, patience, obedience… We were grounded from the TV, Splinter took Donnie’s tools… You should’ve heard his complaints!” Raph roared with laughter.

Donnie frowned, but the corners of his mouth twitched with suppressed smile. Even Leo chuckled.

“It was the greatest punishment of all. Contrary to my expectations, I wasn’t punished for having fixed the heater behind Master Splinter’s back as I had expected, but for putting my hobby before my brother. We underestimated Mikey’s condition, so Master Splinter aimed his training on not underestimating even the smallest thing. We were forced to be constantly vigilant. We were so tired that we didn’t even complain when we were ordered to go to bed early. And, of course, one of our duties was taking care of Mikey.”

“The little shit used it to his advantage,” Raph announced. “He got better after a couple of days, but he pretended he was still oh-so-sick! Master Splinter let him, waiting for us to notice that we were being fooled.”

“That was our true punishment,” Leo said.

“Pretty tricky,” Casey mused.

“Tricky but effective,” Donnie said. “Since that time we’ve been…”

“Overprotective.” No one had heard Mikey coming until he jumped over the backrest of the couch and almost landed in Raph’s lap. He obviously didn’t care even when the hothead gave him a nasty glare. “Yep, that’s what you do, guys, and sometimes it gets really annoying,” he continued, making sure he had his brothers’ undivided attention. “Shit happens. We grew up, got smarter, went through multiple fights… and yes, we’ve always looked after each other, but there is a line between having each other’s back and being incredibly pushy.”

Mikey’s brothers exchanged looks and soft smiles settled on their lips.

“Those are words of wisdom, Michelangelo.” Master Splinter appeared among them like a ghost. The old rat was a true master of stealth and sometimes he couldn’t resist surprising his sons and their friends like this.

Mikey grinned at their father. “Thank you. I have a good teacher.”

“I just wish more of my wisdom rubbed off on you, my son,” Splinter said with a good-natured smile.

“You should be glad that any wisdom rubbed off on him at all,” Raph said with a smirk. Mikey stuck out his tongue at him.

Everyone laughed. The atmosphere was nice and comfortable.

“So, guys, will you stop guarding me like dogs?” Mikey asked his brothers.

Leo, Donnie and Raph looked at each other.

“Well, we can’t promise you that…” Leo started with a big grin.

“Heeeey!” Mikey protested.

“… but we’ll try,” Leo finished, a cheerful smile still playing on his lips.

Mikey was debating if he should feel offended or let it be, but then he just sighed. “All right. I think ‘try’ is the best I’ll get from you right now.”

April leaned to Mikey. “Maybe that’s their way to show how much they love you,” she whispered.

Mikey snorted. “They can show me their love after I’ll kick their asses if they ruin my fun again.” Looking at April, he didn’t notice Leo’s fingers in the air, counting down. Three… two… one…

Three green bodies leapt forward and toppled him on the floor beside the couch. A girl-like scream filled the room before it turned into laughter.

“You know, Mikey,” Leo started as he, Donnie and Raph held Mikey in a tight hug, “you can kick our asses as much as you want, but one thing will always be clear…”

“NO ONE MESSES WITH OUR MIKEY!!!” three voices yelled in unison, and the room filled with laughter again.


End file.
